Baraban (drum)

Circassian music is music of the Circassians (Adyghes, Cherkess, and Kabardays), people from Northern Caucasus, Russia. Their music demonstrates their traditions and habits.

Circassian music is characterized by certain instruments, including:

Dance if you are to be one of the people, dance if you are to feel life in your veins.

'Circassian' is the collective name given to the peoples of the North Caucasus, and includes the many tribes of the Adyghes, Chechens and some peoples of Daghestan. To them, dancing is something one learns as part of one's upbringing. Each individual is expected to know either the music, if not dances of their people. It's a social function, a part of life, even if only in landmark events such as weddings.

There is no real need for an excuse to dance, anywhere is fine, so long as the musicians are there, and there is enough space. But this combination rarely comes together, so one must look for either choreographed stage performances or attend weddings, or gatherings of young people called 'Zexecs' (literally a 'Be-together').

Albeit there is a culture of song-storytelling by travelling 'Woredi'o's or 'Song-tellers', Circassian music used most often today is closely tied to Circassian dance. There are several dances that are performed differently:

Qaashuo (Adyghe: Къашъо; Kabardian: Къафэ) is a piece with (4:4) time signature, and usually this piece demonstrates the relationship between the Ch'aalle (boy) and the Pshashe (girl), this relationship which is built out of love, cooperation and strength. Usually 'Qafe' is the main social dance in a 'Djegu' (a Circassian dance gathering, literally meaning 'play') and there are more than 100 qafes written by different Circassian artists, apart from the original traditional dances, and the individualised styles by each self-trained of the Circassian society.

Wygg (Adyghe: Удж) is a formal piece with (8:4) time signature, and usually this piece is played before Challas are going to war, but nowadays it is played at the end of the Djegu involving all couples present, and usually it follows this rhythm each eight time intervals a new musical phrase is introduced, and this piece may be repeated several times since more than ten different Wuigs are available. It is said it was also used as a form of worship by circling a great tree that symbolises the forest God, Mez-i-t'ha. This 'rondel' type variant is the ancestor of the populasied dance known as The Circassian Circle danced by the Circassians' distant Celtic cousins after a cultural influx in the 18th century.

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Wikipedia